


Secrets

by orphan_account



Series: Childhood Memories [7]
Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Best Friends, Coming Out, Drabble, Drabble Collection, Fluff, Growing Up, M/M, Young, Young Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-24
Updated: 2013-03-24
Packaged: 2017-12-06 08:50:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/733804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>When Harry is 11 he realises he likes guys.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Secrets

When Harry is 11 he realises he likes guys. It’s all for one reason, really, and that is this boy called Zayn. They’re in the same form when he starts high school and they quickly become friends despite the fact that the younger boy is cool and the other is not - well, not until people see who he’s hanging out with and start to respect him for it. Anyway, the thing is that his new mate likes boys and girls and he’s fine with it even when teachers give him strange looks and tell him he’s ‘too young’ to know that yet. But none of the other pupils are going to give him shit about it thanks to his heightened social status, so the older student has the freedom to wonder whether he might be interested in guys as well – after all, it’s an idea he’s been fascinated with since primary school. At first he’s not quite sure what to make of his new friend’s complete belief in who he is, but he soon decides on admiration which quickly turns to respect and then finally understanding and a feeling of comradeship. In fact, that pretty much describes the year 7’s transition from confused to closeted to openly gay, although obviously it’s a bit more of a complicated process than that, and one which involves quite a lot of (though he hates to admit it) staring at boobs and flicking through his sister’s magazines only to get strange reactions when he sees pictures of good looking male celebrities. By the end of it he needs no more convincing that he definitely isn’t into girls. At first he’s not sure he wants to tell anyone because, regardless of Zayn’s mostly positive relationships with all the other students, he’s scared that being ‘out’ could mean a distinctly negative impact on his popularity and school life in general. It takes a fair deal of soul searching and deliberately vague conversations with his friends and family for him to realise that none of them are going to treat him any differently as a result, so then there’s just the task of telling everyone to undertake. He should probably talk to his only other not-straight mate about it, but although he and Louis don’t see each other nearly as much these days the older boy is still his best friend, and he wants to tell him first. If he’s honest, he’s also most concerned about the 13 year old’s opinion of him, which is why he’s shaking a little as he tries to work up the courage to bring up the subject while the two of them are playing the latest FIFA game together – Harry always loses but he doesn’t mind because he likes seeing his friend’s looks of jubilation when he wins, just like he does when he goes to see him play real football every Sunday. Eventually he decides it would be best to jump straight in to avoid his usual rambling.

“Lou? I’ve got something to tell you.”

“Mmm?” mutters the teenager, concentrating hard on the X Box game, however the curly haired lad is determined to get his news heard.

“I – I think I’m gay.” He’s not sure what reactions he was expecting, but it definitely wasn’t a shrug and an ‘ok then’. “Louis!” Before he even knows that he’s saying, the young boy is letting his mouth run away with him as usual. “Don’t you care? I’ve been thinking about how to tell you this for weeks and you just say ‘ok then’? I know we’re, you know, not that close any more but I thought you might at least –”

“Harry!” the voice cuts across him, loud enough so that he will hear it but not at all harsh, and he looks up into the blue eyes next to him to see an emotion that he doesn’t quite recognise within them. By now the game has been switched off, highlighting the silence between them that is swiftly broken when the year 9 speaks again. “Of course I care. I care about you and I always will because you’re my best friend. What I don’t care about is who you want to kiss or shag or whatever because that’s your business, although I promise you I will never hate you because of it.” Here he wraps his arms around the smaller lad and envelopes him in a crushing hug. “What I mean is, it doesn’t matter, ok? I’m still going to be your best mate anyway!” Breaking apart, they both know that they should probably be embarrassed by such obvious displays of affection but instead they smile easily at each other in understanding.

“Thanks,” whispers Harry, just loud enough for the older boy to hear, but he simply raises one eyebrow in confusion.

“What for?”

“For… for not judging, I suppose.” After a few seconds of rather intense silence, Louis simply cracks up laughing while his mystified companion waits for an explanation that he knows will come eventually but that will have to be pretty good in order to explain this dramatic change in atmosphere.

“How could I ever judge you, you numpty?” hoots the adolescent, leaning over to punch him playfully on the arm as the 11 year old finally begins to understand and starts smiling. “I mean, look at your face – you’re way too cute for anyone to hate you!” He decides to pretend that his heart doesn’t leap at that.

That evening Louis stays over at Harry’s house and they have a total regression session with all their favourite old toys and games, half of which they’ve forgotten about, followed by hours of reminiscing before they fall asleep practically on top of each other on the mattress that Anne dragged in earlier. When they wake up the next morning they have pancakes and Harry can’t help but think how similar this all is to their sleepovers when they were so much younger, and how since then everything has changed and yet nothing has.


End file.
